eived. I shall not be in New York,
nor away from Washington, until after the meeting of Congress. But I
will gladly give you the hour or two you speak of if you come to
Washington. If you and Jennie could come this week we could make a
spare room without inconvenience. Mrs. Smith--of Washington, Pa., with
her two children--are with us, but they can be put in the room with
their mother.

The alarm about the removal of Holden as Collector of Internal Revenue
for the Covington district is premature. There was a _raid_ made upon
him by a person in whom I take no _stoc,_, and a statement made in
regard to him which I said--if proved true--would mean that he must go
out. But I think that rumor was entirely dispelled.

My Message is not "blocked out," nor scarcely thought of. So many other
exciting matters preoccupy my time and thoughts that I do not bother
myself about the other. I shall trust to the inspiration of the moment
for what I shall say. Will be brief, but to the point if I can.

Yours truly,

U.S. GRANT.

[Grant's second term of office expired March, 1877.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION

Washington,
Dec. 13th, '76.

MY DEAR MR. CORBIN:

I wish you and Jennie would come down and make us a visit. We now have
room, and will have until Fred. returns with his family, which will
probably be a few days before Christmas.--Sometime before my term of
office expires I want Mother to make me a visit. If she would like to
come down during the holidays we could make room by sending one of the
boys out o' nights. The children will all be at home during that week;
possibly the last time we will have them all at home together. At all
events it may be the last opportunity mother may have of seeing them
together.

I received your kind letter of the 11th this A.M. This year, owing to
election excitement, department reports only came in a few days before
the meeting of Congress. When they did come the situation in South
Carolina was so critical that dispatches were coming to me, or to
members of my cabinet, and brought from them to me in such rapid
succession that I do not think I had one single half hour without
interruption all the time I was preparing my message. I am sure I did
not have four hours in its preparation all told, exclusive of the time
consumed in reading the departmental reports. I left out necessarily
topics I should liked to have talked about, but would not mention
without being sure I was right.

My love